'Thia-Thuy Nguyen sheathed the oak of Chateau La Côte with tons of stainless steel strips.'

Vietnamese artist Tia-Thui Nguyen says, "If she's happy, I'm happy too," referring to Mother Earth and her stainless steel creations that frame a dead oak tree on the grounds of the Château La Coste sculpture park and organic winery in Aix-en-Provence.

Irish hotel and real estate tycoon Paddy McQuillen began buying the land in 2002.

The Color of Life.

The remarkable work of "wooden art", includes thousands of stainless steel soldered 5mm thick strips of bark-like bark, shimmering steel oak leaves and fruits and flowers made of gemstones and crystals, assembled on site over two months. This is the first time Nguyen has worked with such material''(one ton of it), and at her studio in Ho Chi Minh City, she did some test branches with local artists and welders to learn techniques and construction methods (image courtesy of the artist).

The multi-disciplinary artist, who also works in painting, creating canvases embroidered with small beads, fashion (her brand is called Thuy Design House) and film, sees no barriers to new mediums. "The material, whether it's fabric, paint or film, doesn't matter - the medium is a way of expressing and transmitting my energy through form," says she energetic Nguyen, a follower of Buddhism. Additional engineering was required at the installation site, using an invisible structure to support and eventually replace the dying tree. Oak''was destined to be cut down before Nguyen decided to give it a second life. "The metal will patina and change with time, wind, rain and sun. This is Mother Earth. I create the sculpture and Mother Earth completes it," she smiles (image courtesy of the artist).

"Color of Life "

Reflecting the bright light sun of Provence, installed in the middle of the road next to the terrace of new hotel-style rooms (opening in 2024) that leads to Tadao Ando's pavilion and through the cypress trees to the luxury hotel Villa La Coste.

The 600-acre sculpture park is home to many works by notable artists including Conrad Shawcross, Sean Scully, Tracey Emin, Ai Weiwei and Richard Serra and Andy Goldsworthy. All works''art dialogues with a bucolic landscape that changes from vineyards to plateaus, forests and artificial lakes (one of which is inhabited by Louise Bourgeois's Crawling Spider, 2003). The collection and curatorial program (under the direction of Daniel Kennedy) is constantly expanding into art, music and design, with exhibitions held in pavilions and spaces designed by Oscar Neimeyer, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers.

Nguyen first visited the estate nine years ago, fell in love with the twisting, curving branches of the oak tree and took a picture of herself next to the tree. "There wasn't a hotel here then, but Paddy invited me to get to know the place and think about creating a piece.

Their friendship dates back to her college years

While supporting and collecting works by established and emerging artists, McQuillen, who has worked on projects in Vietnam, first discovered Nguyen when she was studying at the University of Fine Arts in Ho Chi Minh City and showing her work in small café galleries. They stayed in touch during her studies for a PhD scholarship at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kiev, where she graduated in 2014. Her first work for the growing sculpture park at Chateau La Coste was Silver Room (2017), which is tucked away in the hills. She was inspired by the traditional''Vietnamese Rong House, a wooden and bamboo structure for gathering and prayer. The Silver Room houses a crystal Buddha on a carved stump, illuminated by light coming through gaps in the walls. An exhibition of embroidered "clouds" called "Floating into Nothingness" followed in 2022, and bright colorful paintings hang throughout the hotel.

"Garden of Life "

Accompanied by an exhibition curated by Castle curator Daniel Kennedy in the Oskar Neimeyer Pavilion (his last work, created before his death in 2010), featuring 3D panels of woven steel threads and square-format clouds with densely embroidered branches (image courtesy of the artist).

The castle attracts more than 100,000 visitors a year who come to''discover artwork and dine in restaurants (including an Argentinian restaurant from Francis Malliman) offering an enlightened kind of hospitality based on culture, nature and, of course, the organic vineyard. While McQuillen may be in litigation over the value of Maybourne, which owns London's luxury hotels Claridge'\''s, The Connaught and The Berkeley, Château La Coste is proof of his vision for the future. He has also been appointed Vietnam's honorary consul in Dublin in 2023.

For Nguyen, McQuillen's spotlight has attracted new collectors and clients, including an exhibition at Almain Rech in Paris (January 2024), as well as spotlighting a new generation of Vietnamese artists. She opened a workspace and gallery''Factory Contemporary Arts Center in Ho Chi Minh City. "I want to set an example and help mentor the next generation. If I can do it, you can do it, and one day we can do it together," she says.

The Color of Life is at Château La Coste in Aix-en-Provence chateau-la-coste.com